Discount demanded after water main bursts

Business leaders in Cork have called for a discount in commercial water bills after a burst main forced several businesses to close and left 40,000 people without water.

Cork Business Association chief executive, Lawrence Owens, led calls last night for Irish Water to arrange discounts for those firms affected by the major outage.

“It is hard to quantify the loss to businesses arising out of this fault. Water is essential for many businesses, especially those in the hospitality trade, and most of them had to close for a time yesterday. They are paying for a service and reliability,” said Mr Owens.